Dust Bunnies
by AbnormallyWeirdPerson
Summary: Leon is spending the night and Cloud just can't sleep. But what is Leon dreaming about? [implied CloudLeon] [oneshot]


hey peoples, this is a CloudLeon oneshot -gasp- not SoraRiku! seriously, i'm proud of myself for being able to write a different main pairing for once. in fact, no other pairings are even _mentioned_ in here, so... i feel proud :) anyways, it was an idea that entered my head and i liked it a lot so i wrote it down. took a while to think of the ending though... grr... evil endings. i'm not very good at them. anyways, hope you enjoy :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts. wow... so surprising, right? i mean, who ever would've guessed that a teenage girl wouldn't own one of the best games of all-time? i know, shocking, isn't it:P

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Cloud's POV

The oak's branches swayed as a breeze brushed by my window. However, that fact was nearly hidden from me by my maroon curtains that would shade me from the sun's brilliant rays in the later hours of the morning. My bed's headboard rested against the well-built wall. In fact, the apartment itself was well-made. These days, all buildings were given the time and effort for them to have good quality.

The moon peeked inside my small bedroom, letting its soft light travel over the cold, hard floor. I sighed. That had been the thirty-seventh time the clouds had let the moon do that. Yep, thirty-seven times. How would I know? Well, it had been a long night.

I couldn't sleep. No matter how hard I tried, it just wouldn't come. I was tired and quite willing to go unconscious, but my body wouldn't let me. Thank God this wasn't an often occurrence for me because I hate not being able to go to sleep. I feel bad for insomniacs; they have to deal with this every night.

Finally totally bored and having given up on ever going to sleep, I got up to read. Maybe I'd finally be able to finish my book. I'd had it for a few weeks now, but I'd never had the time to read it. So rolling out of bed (quite literally), I slipped on my fuzzy pink bunny slippers to prevent cold feet from getting even colder by touching the cold floor.

Yes, fuzzy pink bunny slippers. They are the essence of coolness in case you didn't know.

What? They are!

Anyway, I stumbled out into my living room—completely drained of any energy I might've had six hours ago. I nearly tripped over—what was it, a bag? Oh yeah, Leon was spending the night.

Sora and his friends had dropped by Hollow Bastion and needed a place to crash for the night, so Leon gave up his place. But then Leon needed a place to sleep, so Aerith and Yuffie were only too happy to volunteer mine.

Not that he was a bad guest or anything. On the contrary, he came over around eight saying he'd already eaten. Watched TV and fell asleep on the couch (which was a good thing because I wasn't about to give up my bed).

Hoping he wasn't one of those people that woke up to the slightest noise or light, I crossed the room praying he wouldn't wake up. It's not fun dealing with people when they're half-awake. However, some people are better than others.

For instance, there are the people that yell at you when woken up. Then there are those that gain violent tendencies when woken up. And some people just look at you funny before crashing their head to the pillow and falling back to sleep again.

I think if I had a choice, I'd prefer Leon to be the last of those three. Then I wouldn't have to smack him upside the head to get him to go back to sleep.

Having managed to get to the recliner, I fell into it. God, I was exhausted, but sleep wouldn't come to me easily. Nope. It had lent me that knowledge two hours ago.

So, reaching for a book laying on the floor, I picked it up. It had been a while since I was last able to read it. I didn't remember what was going on inside it, and when I opened it up, the words flew by.

I was reading the book. I was. But not all of me was reading it. My eyes would go back and forth across the page, following every word, but my mind wasn't there. My mind was wandering. Where it was wandering, I couldn't tell. Hopefully not some place too scary.

It just thought about how quiet it was in my apartment except for Leon's regular deep breaths and the occasional wind whistling outside. How peaceful things could be at night. How things could seem so still. How the carpet needed to be vacuumed. How three strands of my blonde hair fell out of their spikes and onto my face. How when my fingers slipped them back, my eyes fell on Leon.

His expression was surprisingly serene. Not that I'd had much experience at watching sleeping people. Oh God, that's what I was doing, wasn't I? I was watching Leon sleep.

Wow, I need a life.

But he _did_ look startlingly calm with his gunmetal eyes shut out from the rest of the world and his chocolate hair framing that beautiful face. Come to think of it, is "gunmetal" even a color? Oh well, even if it isn't, it describes them perfectly.

Did I . . . I just called him beautiful, didn't I? Wow, I must be _really_ out of it to be calling a guy (and _Leon_, no less) beautiful.

See, _this_ is why children should listen when their parents tell them to go to bed. They never know what sort of weird thoughts will come with sleep deprivation. And I thought children with _sugar_ deprivation was bad. Sleep deprivation... yeah, I don't want to know.

"Duh... b'n..."

Wait... what? Was Leon... sleep-talking?

"What?" I asked quietly.

"Duz... b'neez..."

Well, I'm proud to say that I for one had no idea what he was saying.

His face scrunched up and almost looked like it was in pain before saying, "Duzt... bun'neez..."

Ok, was it just me, or was he trying to say "dust bunnies?"

I mean, I knew Leon was a neat freak and all, but this was going a little too far. Who in their right mind had nightmares about dust bunnies? Unless, of course, he was having wet dreams about them instead.

...Ok, that's even worse than thinking he's having nightmares about them! I'll just stick with the nightmares, thank you very much. Nightmares about dust bunnies _have_ to be more likely than wet dreams about them. I mean, having dreams about dust bunnies at all is a little weird, but having _wet dreams_ about _dust bunnies_... ? That's just _disturbing_.

"D'n... d'nt eet meh!..."

Oh... my... God...

Leon was having a nightmare about dust bunnies eating him.

If I wasn't so worried about waking him, I would've laughed. Very hard and loud. I mean, who knew the great Leon who, although a neat freak, leaded the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee and had to be the very essence of the "strong and silent" type, had nightmares about dust bunnies eating him? The very idea of it was hilarious!

Wait... would I be able to tell anyone about this? Well, knowing me, I'd probably let it slip at breakfast that I heard him, and then he'd most likely swear me to secrecy for the rest of my life.

Eh... maybe this wasn't going to be as much fun as I thought it'd be. Then again, at least I'd have some blackmail against him.

"Ngh... Noh!... nngh..." Leon murmured before rolling over, the broad canvas of his back facing me.

Sighing, I decided to go back to my book and _really_ read it this time. I wouldn't be distracted by someone sleeping in my couch dreaming about evil dust bunnies eating him.

Oh no, I would not.

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

"Wake up," a gruff voice said, its owner shaking me roughly.

"Wha...?" I mumbled sleepily, barely opening my eyes. When I did open them, there was a bright light and a figure standing a few feet away from me.

Heaven? Wait... I wasn't in a tunnel, I was in my apartment. In my chair, to be exact. Huh. Guess I fell asleep reading. An open book in my lap proved as further evidence of that.

After blinking for a few seconds, I recognized the figure as Leon. The brunet appeared to be walking towards my kitchen and... making coffee? The aroma reached me before the thought, and moments later I was stumbling out of the chair to reach the glorious caffeine.

This may sound creepy, but I don't really remember anything from that point until I found myself sipping coffee from my favorite mug. Leon was on the floor and rubbing the back of his head, muttering curses ferociously fast.

"Er... sorry about that. Did I do something?" I asked, afraid that I had, indeed, done something. Something that probably involved how Leon ended up on the floor.

Leon sent me a glare before stating accusingly, "Caffeine addict."

"I guess," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Grunting, Leon got up and poured himself a cup of coffee before sitting across from me at the kitchen counter. A few moments of silence passed as both of us took in our coffee. It wasn't an awkward silence though, thank God. I hate awkward silences. They make me ramble on and on about nothing in particular and I always end up sounding like a complete idiot. Last time I got stuck in one, I just went on and on and on and said something about flamethrowers, Sephiroth, mice, and yams.

Yeah, I hate awkward silences.

Anyway, things were going fine between us. Neither of us had killed the other yet like Cid predicted. Huh. Guess he doesn't think we have much self control. Boy, was he wrong. Leon has to have the most self control in all the worlds. And me? I like to think I have a lot of it, but not near as much as Leon.

Hmm. Come to think of it, this is probably why he didn't kill me when I ran him over a bit ago.

Lazily, I glanced around my home. The kitchen was small and semi-clean. Some crumbs from past meals remained on the counter and the bee on the Honey Nut Cheerios box was stuck in its two-dimensional state on the slab of cardboard. Yes, I eat Honey Nut Cheerios. The commercials may make me cringe, but the cereal is love in a box.

Glancing at my cup in my hands, I noticed something coming at me from the corner of my eye and choked. I nearly spilled my coffee!

It was big, hairy, and OMIGOD IT WAS COMING RIGHT AT ME!

I froze. It was crawling closer... and closer... and closer...

Leon simply said before taking another sip of his coffee, "Cloud, will you kill that spider already?"

I glared at him, annoyed.

"No, I can't," I stated coolly. The monstrous thing was still continuing its set path toward me.

"Why not?"

I didn't answer.

"Cloud," Leon began, smirking. "Are you afraid of spiders?"

The spider was getting closer. "No..."

"Uh-huh," Leon said sarcastically.

I wasn't sure, but I think I felt the beginning of a sweat drop. The spider was... omigod it was almost on my arm!

"Leon... please kill that spider," I requested as calmly as I could.

"Why don't you? After all, you're not afraid of spiders."

Leon was enjoying every minute of this. I could tell. The bastard.

But the spider was _closer, closer, closer... Shit—it's after my coffee!_

"Alright! I suffer arachnophobia, now will you _please_ kill the stupid thing?" I very nearly shouted. I felt a tingling sensation as goosebumps took over my arm and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.

However, Leon complied by crushing it with his bare thumb (for once he wasn't wearing gloves).

_Ewww... _

"Happy?" he asked, still smirking.

I just nodded and went back to enjoying my morning coffee.

"Who would've guessed that the infamous Cloud Strife is scared of _spiders_," Leon teased.

"Shut it, you were sleep-talking last night, neat freak," I muttered.

"Really..." he drawled. I could tell he was interested, he just didn't want to _seem_ interested.

Does that make sense?

"Yes, you were having a nightmare. And if I remember right, it was about dust bunnies eating you," I informed, unable to hold back an evil grin.

Leon nearly spit out his coffee. "_What?_"

"I said, you were having a nightmare about being eaten by dust bunnies," I repeated.

"They kept multiplying like damn rabbits," Leon muttered under his breath, but I still heard him.

"What was that, Leon?"

He sent a glare at me. "Nothing."

"Right... but in the meantime, I've got blackmail against you," I said, smirking.

"Like that's anything to be proud of since I found out your fear of spiders," Leon snapped back.

"It's called arachnophobia!"

"Right, anyway..." he started tiredly, rubbing his temples. "I've got stuff on you, you've got stuff on me. I don't tell, you don't tell, deal—"

"—or no deal?" I finished.

He just looked at me funny before saying, "You watch that show?"

"When I'm bored," I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

"Huh." There was a few minutes of awkward silence and me shuffling my feet on the floor. Didn't I mention earlier that I _hate_ awkward silences? At least I hadn't opened my mouth yet to try to fill in the silence.

"Well," Leon started, standing up. "I better get going. I don't want Sora to raid my kitchen while I'm gone."

"Yeah, that kid's stomach can be a bottomless pit sometimes," I agreed. I'd taken him out to eat once since he beat me at the Coliseum—it was some bet. I won't say how much he ate—mostly because it was too much for me to remember exactly—, but my wallet was certainly in style afterwards.

It was thin. Anorexic thin. People have no idea how many tournaments I had to win afterwards to fatten it up again.

And now I'm referring to my wallet like livestock. Wonderful. For those who can't tell, I'm mentally rolling my eyes right now.

Quietly, Leon grabbed his things and went to the door. "See ya later, Cloud," he said before shutting the door behind him.

A few minutes later, I was washing our coffee mugs and sighed. All of a sudden, it was a lot quieter in the room, and I almost found myself missing Leon's presence which was kind of funny. I mean, all we'd done was argue mostly.

Leon... you know, I think I talked to him more that morning than I had all year. Yeah, we'd hung out a little together, but always with Yuffie or Aerith around. We'd never really been together alone like that before. Hmmm . . .

Maybe I should get Sora to crash at Leon's again soon.

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EDIT: So yeah, I changed a few things, but the story's basically the same. A few lines were flipped around, some descriptions added, and some other stuff, but nothing big. Just enough to make a difference. (To the author, anyway.)

yay for CloudLeon :D anyways, as always... like it? don't? maybe review? -hint hint nudge nudge-


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